A Two‐Plane Family Flies What It Builds

PITTSTOWN — When Ed and Valerie Mahler want to visit Mrs. Mahler's brother in Oneonta, N.Y., they pack a picnic lunch, deck out their two daughters in their visit ing best, walk a couple of hundred feet from their home here in this rural Hun terdon County community to their private hangar, get in their home‐made monoplane and fly across the border. Time: Less than an hour. In an auto: Over five hours.

The Danbury State Fair? a half‐hour.

Long Island's south shore? Less than a half‐hour.

“It is the only way to live,” Mr. Mahler said. “There's nothing like it.”

In seven years Mr. Mahler has transformed his life from that of, as he calls it, “an 8‐to‐5 Ozone Park commuter” and weekend pilot, to full time stunt flier who has built two airplanes and now lives on six acres with an airport runway in his back yard. Mrs. Mahler has also learned to fly, and often drops in on Delaware and Maryland for some afternoon shopping, when she is not using one of the Mahlers' two cars for local shopping.

In 1965, Mr. Mahler, then 31 years old, lived in the Queens community of Ozone Park, and commuted five days a week to a pharma ceutical packing plant in Hicksville, L.I. Mrs. Mahler was a secretary in the same plant. On weekends, the Mah lers would drive to New Jer sey, rent a plane by the hour in Westfield, and spend afternoons flying over Cen tral Jersey. Mr. Mahler, who, as an 18‐year‐old learned to fly out of Flushing Airport in Queens, has been flying for 20 years.

Late in 1965, the Mahlers moved to Kendall Park, a small Princeton suburb, and Mr, Mahler went to work for a machine‐designing com pany in New Brunswick. After the couple's first daugh ter, Virginia, was born, Mr. Mahler began building his first plane.

It is the BD‐4, a bit plane produced by Bede Aircraft, Inc., of Cleveland. The craft resembles a Piper Cub, with its single engine and its wings mounted atop the cock pit. The plane's skeleton and skin are made of aluminum and fiberglass.

When Mr. Mahler was put ting the plane together—with the occasional help of neigh bors — he was interrupted several times by a confused policeman who, he says, “were sure I was supposed to get a ticket, but they weren't sure for what.”

The plane, which took 15 months to build, cost about $5,000.

The Mahlers flew their plane out of Princeton Air port again on weekends, un til last year, when, after visiting friends in this tiny hamlet, “and looking at old houses, we decided to move, to chuck it all,” Mrs. Mahler said.

After she “worked on Ed,” the Mahlers moved a year ago to their six acres in the foothills of the Sourland Mountains, just a few miles east of the Delaware River and the borders of Pennsyl vania.

Barn Is Converted

Their home is a wide boarded shingled colonial, in back of which is a ruined coop, a potting shed and rather impressive apple or chard. Off the left of the house is, a weathered barn that has been converted by Mr. Mahler to a machine shop, with insulation, heat, air‐conditiorking and a band saw, grinding wheel, lathe, drill press, and welding and sanding equipment. He de signs machinery and builds parts for other planes.

It is here that Mr. Mahler is building a BD‐5, alSo a kit airplane, which looks like a mini‐jet, and is a single seat personal plane powered by a snowmobile engine that will fly at 200 miles an hour.

The plane is made to cost only $2,100 in kit form, in cluding the engine, and. Mr. Mahler has recently con tracted to become thp East erh representative of the Bede company for the plane, “but first I have to build one for myself.”

Directly in back of the barn is Mr. Mahler's hangar, which holds his two planes, his family BD‐4 and his stunt biplane.

Mr. Mahler also built his stunt‐flying biplane, with the assistance of a local me chanic. The plane is steel framed, lined with aluminum struts and sheathed in linen, which is coated with airplane dope and painted.

“It's like a big model plane,” Mr. Mahler said.

As “Big Ed” Mahler, he flies in weekend air shows and is regarded, according to Sonny Everett, an Allegheny Airlines pilot and promotor of the “Great American Fly ing Circus,” as “one of the stars on the circuit.”

In the air shows, Mr. Mah ler performs rather danger ous “aerobatics” from May through October throughout the country. “Big Ed” is known mainly for a maneu ver called a “Lum Cevak” (pronounced Lum Shev‐ock) in which he brings his plane vertically into what is called a “knife‐edge position,” and then does a “double outside tumble,” according, to Mr. Everett.

Several pilots have died doing the sky trick, Mr. Ever ett said. “Big Ed's” next stunt session will be at the Van Sant Airport in Erwinna, Pa., just across the Delaware river from Lambertville, on Oct. 15. According to Mr. Everett, Mr. Mahler earns from between $750 to $1,000 for his weekend air circuses.

Mr. Mahler has also be come a spokesman for gen eral, or “private” aviation, A tall, heavy‐set and rather taciturn man, he shows en thusiasm most when he talks about private flying. He flies in air shows because “I earn my living that way;” He builds, planes “because I love to;” and he flies every day “because I'd rather do that than anything else.”

He thinks. “it's a pity that the only time people learn anything about general avia tion is when somebody is killed,”‘ and he actively pro motes the efforts of the Ex perimental Aviation Associa tion, a fraternity of general aviation flyers.

Mr. Mahler has logged 130 air hours since she learned to fly, and their daughter, Virginia, now 6, takes the stick in the air, her Mother said. “I watch the climb rate and take care that she's level.” Their younger daughter, Christine, 4, is still a little timid.”

Mr. Mahler has logged 4,000 hours in the air, flying virtually every type of gen eral aviation plane, including gliders. Recently, his younger brother, Bob, who lives in South Plaiffield, also built his own plane.

The Mahler's home is next door to the Sky Manor air port, which is a privately owned general aviation air port.

Last week Mr. Mahler took a visitor for a short flight up from the Sky Manor run way and out over the west ern Jersey countryside, over the Delaware River and into a long curving pass over eastern Pennsylvania.

“Nice, huh?” he asked.

Yes, he was told.

“Yes. Not bad at all for a kid from Bay Ridge and Ozone Park, right?”

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A version of this archives appears in print on October 1, 1972, on Page 81 of the New York edition with the headline: A Two‐Plane Family Flies What It Builds. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe